


The Other Half Of The Mirror

by ketomax



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Confrontations, Death Threats, Enemies to Lovers, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Post-Episode: s04e13 Journey's End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 04:37:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16906230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ketomax/pseuds/ketomax
Summary: When dimensions fall apart, things rear their ugly head and the Doctor meets someone he would really rather not. His torment at the hands of a rogue Torchwood agent left the Doctor scarred emotionally and physically and how will Rose handle it?





	1. A Knife In The Back

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheCephalopodAgency](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCephalopodAgency/gifts).



“Impossible.”

  
The Master looked up and hummed, his mind drifting from his current workload to settle on his lover's confused face. “What’s impossible?”

  
The Doctor paced around the room feeling a prickling feeling under his skin; a burning rage at what lay beyond the doors of his TARDIS. It shouldn't be, whatever it was it was wrong. “It’s her, _she's_  here. I don’t know how and I certainly don’t know why, but she’s here, with him.” His vocal cadence jumped from word to word, his anxiety spiking again at the presentation of something horribly wrong.

He grabbed his coat and threw it on, breathing deeply as he pulled the doors open in one swift movement. In a sick facsimile of his original TARDIS, hers stood there in all its blue box glory and he waited with baited breath for the doors across from him to open.

  
“Doctor!” Rose called out, waving. Her enthusiasm knew no bounds and she had no idea the suffering that was coming her way. The Doctor stared as she stepped out of the box onto the solid ground below before she held her arm out to hold back two children, a little blond boy and a brunette girl.

It hurt to see them so happy, as much as he loved the Master completely and wouldn't change him for the world seeing Rose happy with a fake him was almost too much to bear. It stung and he had to save face just a little as he bit his lip, smiling widely, hoping she took it for surprised joy. The Doctor's body language was all sorts of wonky and Rose picked up on it right away.

“You alright Doctor? They’re my uh... My children.” She smiled, “This is son Ashlarkenandrei, and this is my daughter Romanalundravana.”

  
The fact she could say such beautiful names with her dirty human mouth made him seethe and boil with rage- she would never be a Time Lord, never his equal. “I’m fine just... Having a tough time. But you’re you, you’re here! Look at you! With kids! How’s... How’s...” he trailed off, shoving his hands into his pocket as he leaned against the doorframe. The implication was there- how was his half self?

 

“He’s fine... We... We’re fine.” She smiled and brushed it off. “What about you? Travelling with anyone?” Rose asked as she felt a hand on her shoulder- and when the Doctor came eye to eye with his half clone he felt his blood boil and his hearts race. He knew leaving him with a piece of TARDIS coral was a bad idea...

  
The Doctor hummed and smirked a little his body language a little tense and confrontational, and he shrugged in response. “Yeah, you could say that. My oldest friend.”

  
Rose’s Doctor flinched and the colour faded from his face, and his mouth went dry at the implication of the Doctor’s words. There was only one person who fitted that description and he was dead. “Our oldest friend? No, Doctor, you’re having us on. He died. He died in our arms."

The air was tense and both Doctors stared eachother down until the silence was broken. 

  
A call came from inside the Doctor's TARDIS, a jaunty lilt drifting out. “Oh, Theta honey, shut the doors it’s awfully cold outside and the little ones are trying to harmonise.”

  
And with that, the Doctor laughed softly and rolled his eyes, pulling the door to behind him. His entire body language shifted again and he sighed, much looser in his lanky form. The Doctor grinned, his hand movements became more obvious and exaggerated, he had an heir of the Master about him- a flair for the dramatic. “Oh, damn. Cat's out of the bag. I was really hoping to keep this going just a little while longer but...”

  
Rose frowned and tugged her Doctor down to whisper in his ear, “Sorry but who’s voice is that?”

  
“The Master," he replies, "Our oldest friend, and longest suffering enemy. A traitorous, rebellious murderous time lord, who lives for nothing but mass slaughter and my eternal torment.” He frowned and held Rose tightly.“ This is not good. Not good at all. Rose...”

The Doctor laughed again and gave them a look of spite, anger, and hatred seeping out of every fleck and sparkle in his otherwise dead eyes. His voice had dropped lower, no longer in the vicinity of screwing around.l and playing for shits and giggles. “He saved my life when humanity was busy butchering my body for TARDIS spores. That’s right, Rose, the human race, the ‘if it’s alien it’s ours' race, you and your kind did this to me. You made me like this.” He snarled angry and hopped down onto the grass, stalking a little closer to Rose and his half and half counterpart. “I’m going to give you one warning, Rose Tyler. Run. Run away as far as you can go to the edge of the universe where the skies are made of diamonds because if I find you next time, I will not be so benevolent and sparing. Run, Bad Wolf, run.” His voice darkened with each and every syllable and he ended gave to face with her every inch the Oncoming Storm.

  
Rose was too shocked to speak and looked as if she was bordering on tears. The half Doctor pulled her inside and stared at his original self with such disdain and hatred, before closing the door and teleporting away. He had to get Rose away from here, far away to where the rage of the Doctor, the Warrior could not reach.

  
The Doctor walked back to his own TARDIS, feeling the heart of it pulse inside him in his chest. It was nice to be so alive in the universe, but humanity had to pay the price for their transgressions- playing God was his job, his place. It was his right, as the Time Lord Victorious. And the one person who could stop him was by his side, with no intention of ending this.

 

"Giving them a head start? My my Theta, generous." The Master looked up with a soft hum and winked, "End of the universe?"

 

"I don't care where I go as long as you're there with me." The Doctor flashed his cheesy grin and winked back.


	2. And Yet Our Red Hearts Bleed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mini epilogue, featuring a special guest.

Rose stepped out of the TARDIS, the cool air of the space station sending shivers down her spine. It was eerily quiet, but after that confrontation she felt a little peace and quiet would be appreciated.

  
Her Doctor stepped out behind her, hand on her shoulder in a reassuring gesture, “We’re safe here. The kids are asleep, she’s looking after them.”

  
Their TARDIS had been grown from an offcut of the original, and cared as much for Rose and the Doctor as the original had done. It hummed quietly to them both, wishing them well on their quick journey.

  
Rose took his hand and wandered around the space station, finding nothing unusual bar the lack of people. “Feels a bit like the SS Madame de Pompadour... Not going to find a window to Ancient Greece are we? Stalking Plato or something...”

  
The Doctor just laughed, the sound refreshing and calming. “Nah, this is just mostly automation really...” he paused as he looked up into what seemed like a gathering hall.

  
A woman stood in front of the 60 foot high windows staring out onto space, hands in her coat pocket swishing it slightly. She turned to face the two of them, her boots making a fairly firm thud on the ground as she walked towards them. Her eyes sparkled like the morning sun, her smile as welcoming as a tight hug from a close friend after years apart; and she spoke when she was a few feet from them.

  
“It doesn’t last forever. I’m proof of that,” she said cryptically and pulled both of them into a tight hug at the same time.

  
Rose frowned confused and blinked at her when she released them both, “I’m sorry, who are you?”

  
“Who indeed,” she chuckled, thumbs twanging her yellow suspenders, “Who indeed. Just take that to heart, it doesn’t last forever.”

  
And with that, she took off past them towards the entrance where Rose and the Doctor had parked the TARDIS. Her coat swayed behind her and just before she dipped through the door she turned around for the last time, “Being you, Doctor, was brilliant! This you, I mean. Not the other you. You’re the real deal. Remember- they don’t last forever!”

  
Rose stood there dumbfounded as she looked up at the Doctor, “Doctor, who was that? Is she...”

  
He raised his eyebrows and sniffed the air looking for that Gallifreyan energy. “She’s one of my future faces... But... From me. Not him. I thought I was half Gallifreyan half human? And what... What did she mean when she said it doesn’t last forever?” The Doctor groaned softly, “God sometimes this timey wimey nonsense gets on my bloody wick!” he groaned frustrated.

  
Rose simply chuckled, “Sometimes you don’t half sound like Donna. Just that little bit of human in you. Amazing.”

  
“Shut it you.” He grinned. “Well, I guess we’ll find out in due course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love one (1) sunshine babe.

**Author's Note:**

> This was originally a drabble written a while back and it has just been tidied up and fixed.


End file.
